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Independent presidential contender Ahn Cheol-soo announced Friday that he would launch a presidential committee tasked with overhauling the governance structure of chaebol, the country’s family-owned conglomerates.
“Chaebol are wielding more influence, but the government cannot come up with an effective response due to the absence of a control tower,” Yoo Min-young, a spokesman of Ahn’s camp, said.
He said the 50-year-old novice politician wants to establish a presidential committee responsible for coordinating and supervising all chaebol-related affairs by government ministries and agencies.
“The committee will provide momentum for chaebol reform and ensure greater freedom and creativity as a result of eliminating a system controlled by those with vested interests,” Yoo said.
“It will help achieve balanced national development and the democratization of the economy by allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to work together with large enterprises in harmony.”
He said, if elected, Ahn will revise or enact legislation necessary to put a tighter rein on conglomerates within a year of taking office and announce the progress of chaebol reform annually.
Jun Sung-in, a senior economic advisor to Ahn, downplayed the possibility of excessive state interference in the industry and a “crackdown” on chaebol.
“Ahn is pushing the democratization of the economy with the aim of creating a business environment where chaebol are prohibited from destroying the dynamics of the business ecosystem and exercising undue influence over smaller players in the market,” the Hong-ik University professor of economics said.
Jun noted that chaebol have served as the growth driver of the country, but their reckless expansion and the government’s leniency over their corporate greed has led to many adverse side effects.
“Anyone who has seriously thought about chaebol reform would agree that it is not a matter that a single ministry can cope with,” he said.
Jun urged the Saenuri Party, which also calls for economic democratization and tighter regulations on chaebol, to promptly legislate the necessary bills, rather than putting this off until after the election.
A day earlier, Moon Jae-in, candidate of the Democratic United Party also declared that he would curb unfair practices at the country’s large enterprises.
He said he would impose a ban on new cross-shareholding among affiliates and reintroduce an equity investment ceiling for the 10 largest enterprises.
The human rights lawyer-turned-lawmaker also called on the Saenuri Party to work together now to take prompt action in passing similar bills.
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